Jane Hilderman

Executive Director of Samara Canada

Samara Canada is the nonpartisan charity dedicated to bridging the divide between the public and politics, enabling Canadians to fully engage with their democracy. Jane currently co-leads Samara as an Acting Director until June 2015. As Research Manager, Jane also oversees dynamic projects exploring where Canadians participate politically, how MPs do their jobs, and citizen perceptions of MPs and political parties. This research is shared publicly through Samara's Democracy Reports series, which Jane frequently discusses on radio and television including CBC radio, CTV’s Power Play, CPAC’s Prime Time, Maclean’s and Global News. A graduate of the School of Public Policy & Governance at the University of Toronto and Queen’s University, Jane also spent a year working on Parliament Hill for both government and opposition benches through the long-standing Parliamentary Internship Programme.

Young people vote at much lower rates than older Canadians. In the 2011 federal election, only 41 per cent of Canadians under 30 voted. However, when it comes to rates of participation in political and civic life beyond voting, younger Canadians' participation rate is 11 percentage points higher, on average, than their older counterparts across 18 forms of participation.

When we turn the focus to the growing list of nominees for Everyday Political Citizen, we can add to our assessment of politics people like 28-year-old Idil Burale, finalist for last year's contest and a candidate for city council in this month's Ontario municipal elections.